Most of us who have been in business would reckon upon our own level of customer service to be Good or perhaps even better. Yet, when WE are the customer; how many times are we indignant about the poverty of the service we've been given.......quite often I'd suggest; can you spot the inherent problem?.....Where does this discrepancy come from?
I would guess that there is a general lack of empathy between the roles that we take in life. If you've ever been driving a car when a pedestrian is crossing the road, then you will inevitably see everything from your own perspective of being in the relative safety of being in the car. How often do You slow down just a bit, to show the pedestrian that you have acknowledged their presence....I hope your answer is something like "Yes, I will always do this".
But, speaking as someone who walks in urban areas a lot, I can guarantee you that a significant percentage of drivers will not care a jot, some will in-fact accelerate towards a crossing pedestrian. Are they all psychotic?......Perhaps they are, but more likely is that they have a very poor level of empathy with other people, i.e. Not being intuitively understanding of the fact that an accelerating vehicle represents a life-threatening hazzard to a pedestrian crossing the road........still with me?.......good........
Now, try to use this empathy (albeit not if you're the non-empathising psycho), to look at things from your customer's point of view. Even if You are busy or tired or stressed, your customer has little or no knowledge of that.....they will only see what they see, without apriori knowledge....they will interpret things very negatively Unless you make absolutely sure that they will not.
So, if you're busy serving someone else, make sure you acknowledge the waiting customer. Give everyone a smile and always make sure you can see the world from their point of view.
Most businesses go bust due to poor customer service. But (and they will never accept the truth)....businesses that go bust will very rarely know that this IS the truth. They will think it was overheads, cashflow, competition or this-and-that (whatever); utter nonsense, most of the problem is (or was) their poor customer service.
Customer Service is the core of your business, without it, you're (in the immortal words of Frazer of Dads Army) DOOMED!
if you cannot "do" customer service, then make sure you employ people who can.